but i think when i get rid of those, like, base feelings, the underlying feeling is just of gratitude that he was in my life, even for a brief moment in time. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. i'm marlie hall with breaking news. nbc news has confirmed that a u.s. operation in syria targeted the leader of isis, abu bakr al baghdadi. he is believed to have been killed though testing is still being done to confirm that. president trump will make a major announcement at 9:00 a.m. believed to be about the baghdadi operation. we'll continue to monitor the story and bring you updates. for now back to our regular programming. programming.

a family's desperate search for justice. >> nothing has turned out right. a wife and mother murdered. >> she was in a casket-like position. her arms were crossed. >> who would have a motive to kill a lady in rural iowa? >> this purse is untouched. her jewelry box is untouched. >> did someone have a bigger prize in mind? a family farm worth a fortune. >> i did not shoot my nmom and would never shoot my mom! >> two trials and two verdicts. >> there are only two people who knew what happened that day. one of them is dead and the other one is sitting in that chair. >> too much to bear. >> it's just been a hell on earth. hello.

welcome to "dateline." bill and shirley carter built a comfortable life and raised a family on their sprawling farm in america's heartland. as their golden years approached, the couple fell into a routine. daily coffee, working the fields, and spending time with the grandkids. one morning, gunshots rang out, leaving shirley dead, planting the seeds of a mystery that would turn one family member against another. here is dennis murphy with "the farm." >> reporter: council bluffs, iowa.te in a small courtroom, the new, and final, scene of a four-year long drama was playing out. >> count one, murder in the first degree. the defendant did, having malice aforethought, willfully, deliberately, and with ug premeditation kill shirley dean carter. >> reporter: it's a case that ripped the stitches out of a te

close-knit family. >> the bullet strikes her in the side. it carves a path through her st chest, shattering ribs and punching holes in her lung and heart. >> reporter: shirley carter, shot twice with a deer rifle, in the little home set in cornfields that she'd shared with her husband of 50 years, bill carter. in pleasantville, iowa, so much of the rhythm of life is set by the seasons, turning the acreage, planting the seed, then bringing in the harvest, corn and soy, mostly. so that june morning in 2015 dawned with no particular omens. shirley carter and her husband, bill, started their day as they always did, with coffee at the general store. >> we went to coffee every morning at milo, to casey's. that was a ritual. >> reporter: after coffee, saying hello to neighbors, they bounced back down the gravel road to home.ba

bill dropped off shirley at the top of the driveway.ed >> i let her out of the pickup, and she said, "i think i'll finish my coffee before i chore. and i said, "honey, i'll see you between 11:00 and 11:30." >> reporter: you never know, do you, bill? >> you don't know. >> reporter: bill headed off to sell a load of corn at the granary about an hour away. by 11:00 a.m., he remembers being just a few miles from home when he got a call from his daughter. >> and she said, "dad, mom's dead. jason found her." >> reporter: jason, bill's son, had called 9-1-1. this is what he said. >> my mom -- my mom is laying here on the floor. blood -- there is blood everywhere, and she's dead, and i don't know what happened. t >> reporter: bill got to the house, ran from his truck, passing son jason on the back deck. >> i went in, and there she lay.

and she looked like she was asleep. >> reporter: not long after, marion county sheriff, jason sandholt, arrived at the farmhouse. he grew up in marion county and knew the carter family. did you get into the house itself? >> i did. >> reporter: and there you are in the kitchen saying, "what in the world happened here?" >> correct. and who would have a motive, wh would have, i mean, the desire to -- to kill a lady in rural iowa. >> reporter: the sheriff called for help. >> i got multiple phone calls from my boss. >> reporter: special agent, mark ludwick works for a division of the state police, the department of criminal investigation, the dci. this was his first case in pleasantville, about an hour from des moines. >> so i get here to the driveway, got multiple vehicles in the driveway. law enforcement's on the scene, and the family's kind of gathering around the big tree. >> reporter: does any of the arriving officers tell you, "that's the husband," or "that'g the son"? >> i meet with the sheriff, and it's apparent to me that these are family members, and i don't know names yet. >> reporter: as soon as he got a

search warrant, agent ludwick entered the house with crime ra scene techs. it looked as though someone had ransacked the place, but, there sitting on a chair -- >> you first see this purse. that's gonna be a key item for a burglar. it's untouched. >> reporter: money in it? >> money in it. cash in it. credit cards in it. gift cards in it. uhm, was not touched. >> reporter: some papers were strewn about, huh? n >> that was it.wn when we made our way into the bedroom, her jewelry boxes were untouched. >> reporter: and in the kitchen lay the unlikely victim, shirley carter, a 68-year-old farm wife and mother. >> shirley's body was laying right here on the kitchen floor. >> reporter: what's your best guess as to what happened that o day? >> we know the gun was in this area, and was -- shirley was standing in the middle of the kitchen. >> reporter: the first bullet went through shirley's body and pierced the refrigerator.ou they thought the weapon was a high-powered gun, perhaps a rifle. >> reporter: held like this? like --e. >> held -- >> reporter: shooting from the hip?

>> held from a hip. we know shirley would have om fallen down to the kitchen floor, and the shooter would have moved up towards and then fired a shot like this. >> reporter: a coup-de-grace shot to shirley's chest. how totally odd the way she'd come to rest. >> she was in a casket-like position, her arms were crossed. >> reporter: as though the funeral director had posed her for viewing, huh? >> yes, and that's not normal. >> reporter: there were still tests to be done, interviews to conduct, but it was coming. coming with the relentless fury of an iowa summer twister. no stopping it. a family was about to be destroyed. >> the investigation starts with a closer look at the family, which didn't make the family very happy. l coming up >> they are upset that we're wasting time. >> reporter: but police had their reasons. the murder weapon may have belonged to someone within the family. >> so the question is where is this .270 remington? >> that's correct. >> when "dateline" continues.

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but when your crime-scene techs cleared the house, they really didn't have much for you, did they? >> they did not. >> no forensics, no blood, no dna, nothing really useful. nobody walked in front of a security camera? >> right. >> reporter: so to understand shirley carter's death, they'd have to learn more about her life. the backstory to a murder. turned out, she was a local girl. her dad, a grocer. her mother, an assistant at a law office. in high school, she met bill. where'd you go on your first date, do you remember? >> took her to the homecoming dance. she was quiet. prettiest thing you've ever seen. >> reporter: as bill tells it they were kids in love -- deeply, maybe carelessly. during her sophomore year, shirley got pregnant. >> we were married at a very young age. i was 18 -- had just turned 18. and she was 16. >> reporter: soon, daughter jana was born. then came billy. eight years later, jason completed the family. with three kids to raise, bill

and shirley went into farming. on a small plot of starter land, they grew some corn and soybeans, then plowed the profits into more prime iowa acreage. shirley loved farming. >> she did everything. >> she just took to it, huh? >> she was a natural. >> she loved, loved being in the tractors. >> reporter: long-time friend and neighbor, irene schulz, said shirley brought a little pizzazz to the fields when she climbed into her custom-made tractor. >> she always put a little bit of makeup on every morning before she went out. >> you mean up on the john deere? she's -- she's decked out -- >> in the john deere. she -- she was. she had rosy cheeks. she was beautiful inside and out. >> reporter: in time, daughter jana married and moved away to a job in des moines. son billy went into the heating and air conditioning business. but jason, the youngest child, took to the land. >> i really enjoyed working with him. i was teaching him. he is a good farmer.

>> reporter: jason would carry on the farming tradition for another generation. and best of all he and his wife, shelly, lived close by. bill and shirley soon had grandchildren to dote on. a happy family picture suddenly disfigured by the ugly murder of shirley carter. dci agent mark ludwick took the lead in the investigation. >> first, we want to identify all witnesses and we want to separate tehem and we want to conduct a face-to-face sit-down interview as soon as we can. >> reporter: early on, the most important witnesses were bill, the husband, and jason, the son. ludwick assigned deputies to take the two down to the pleasantville pd. >> and uh, she said "do you want to go get coffee?" >> reporter: in an interview room, bill told investigators the same story he told us. how he dropped shirley off at home and then ran a load of corn to the grainery and then he raced home to find his wife still on the floor. >> and when i went in and i felt her, she was cold.

>> reporter: jason, in turn, said his day started pretty much the same. he'd also taken a load of corn to that same grainery. >> so i would've backed out of the drive and headed down to eddyville. >> reporter: later in the morning, he said he went to his parents' house to help with some chores, and then discovered his mother. >> and she wasn't alive. it was terrible! >> reporter: with their accounts on the record, deputies sent bill and jason home that night. the farmhouse was still taped off as a crime scene, so bill stayed at jason's place. >> and i didn't sleep that night. i smoked cigarettes and i walked that deck. >> reporter: in the meantime, crime techs had finished with the scene, and deputies had seized half a dozen guns they found in the house. jason took a look at the inventory of weapons they'd confiscated and he noticed one gun was missing -- a high-powered remington .270 rifle like this one.

how did the weapon come to you? >> my oldest son bought it for me in 2005 for christmas. >> reporter: bill kept the rifle in a gun safe in his basement. >> the question is, where is this 270 remington and is that our murder weapon? >> that's correct. >> reporter: the crime scene investigators had examined the two slugs they'd collected. >> and it could be ammo used in a 270 remington? >> it was a 270 -- >> round? >> -- round. >> reporter: couldn't say absolutely, positively, but certainly consistent with being -- >> they were consistent. >> reporter: rounds fired from that type of weapon? >> that's correct. >> reporter: bill stored that rifle, unloaded, deep in his basement. the killer would have to have gotten lucky finding the gun and the ammo. or investigators thought, maybe the shooter was someone who knew where that gun was. maybe, someone in the family? that didn't go over well with the carters. >> we go back out to the crime scene and then the family is mad. >> reporter: jason, his wife shelly, bill, and daughter jana, all gathered in the living room. >> and jana and bill let us have it. they are upset that we're wasting time on this investigation, that we're

screwing up the investigation, because we're looking at family members. >> reporter: bill and his daughter were right about at least one thing -- they were now focusing on the family. >> coming up -- >> we had found out that jason carter was having an affair. >> if jason was hiding an affair, was he hiding anything else? >> i never hurt my mom. if you want to hold those affairs against me, that's fine. but i never -- >> this isn't about an affair. >> i never hurt my mom. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪

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welcome back. did someone close to shirley carter want her dead? a riffle missing from her husband's gun safe led investigators to believe that the killer knew where bill stored her weapons. shirley's loved ones were under scrutiny and soon detectives could discover that someone in

the carter clan had plenty to hide. continuing. our story, here is dennis murphy with "the farm." >> reporter: shirley, the farm wife and mother, had been gunned down in her own kitchen, and there was no obvious explanation for the crime. as investigators began digging into the carter family background, though, they came across a detail that focused their attention. it concerned the son jason, the one who found his mother's body. >> we had found out that jason carter was having an affair. >> how'd you find that out? >> a friend of his during one of the interviews. >> reporter: jason never mentioned any problems with his marriage when investigators first asked him about that. so who's this girlfriend? >> we locate her. we bring her in, and we determine that there's another phone in play. >> another phone? >> a phone that they just had. >> the lovers had? what they call burner phones? kind of, off the books? >> burner phones, we call it the sexting phone. >> reporter: the girlfriend told the investigators jason kept the phone stashed away hidden under the hood of his pickup truck. jason not only didn't mention the affair in his first interview, he also never told

investigators about that secret phone. does it change him where he stands in your suspects? >> absolutely. he gets elevated at that point. >> reporter: if jason had tried to hide the affair, agent ludwick wondered if jason was hiding anything else about his mother's murder? the investigator called jason and told him he knew about the affair, and the phone. >> so he says, i will meet you at the sheriff's office. he's there and he hands the cell phone over, and -- >> reporter: says here you go? knock yourself out, huh? >> yes. >> reporter: then, a surprise, jason wanted to talk some more. >> comes in on his own free will, no attorney. >> reporter: in this newly-released video, investigators went over his story again in detail. the timeline of that morning. >> how long from 911 phone call till your dad got there? >> five minutes. >> reporter: jason was bent on letting them know he had nothing to hide, no matter how long it took. bring on your questions.

>> and he sits in a chair, and he proceeds to sit in this chair for over 10 hours. >> let's do this. let's step out. we're going to give you a minute. >> i'm fine. >> doesn't shift, doesn't move, doesn't stand up. >> no bathroom breaks, nothing? >> we begged him to take bathroom breaks. we begged to bring him food. >> brought you that, i don't know if you want it or not. >> i'm all right. >> you need anything else, jason? >> well, what's that about? >> he's gonna stay here until we believe him. >> reporter: he admitted to being unfaithful, but said it was ludicrous to think he'd killed his mother. >> i never hurt my mom. if you wanna hold those affairs against me, that's fine, but i never -- >> this isn't about an affair. >> i never hurt my mom. i walked in and found my mom the way she was. >> this is about shirley being killed. >> i know that, and you're not doing anything about it because whoever did kill her, is still out there! >> reporter: he headed home, but a cloud of suspicion hung over

the carter family, not only over jason, but bill too. bill knew agent ludwick was looking at him since he was the last person known to have seen shirley alive. >> and he said, you know, you could have done this when you brought her back from coffee. >> reporter: then for weeks, nothing happened. >> we have no leads. nothing's going on in the investigation. >> so the shirley carter murder case was heading to the cold case file? >> it was headed that way. yes. >> reporter: but bill carter wasn't going to let that happen. he hired his own detective. nick webb is a crime scene analyst and former homicide detective from texas. bill instructed him to dig into the case with an open mind. if it's the good, the bad, and the ugly, is it all gonna be in your final report? >> we are only advocates for the truth. >> reporter: to aid his investigation, webb purchased a rifle similar to the one missing from bill's basement.

the remington rifle ejects a shell casing between shots. at least one of those would have flown out, as the killer racked another round in the chamber to shoot shirley twice. >> it was never found. >> so somebody had the presence of mind to gather it up? >> that's correct. >> reporter: and since webb promised to look at every possibility, he examined bill's movements the day of the killing. phone records show shirley making a call from the house phone at 8:45 a.m., after bill had dropped her off. and by 9:00 a.m., bill was spotted did he grainery, 50 miles from the house. webb said bill's only opportunity to kill her, was after that. >> bill has to leave the grainery. he has to get home, kill his wife, shirley, and then leave before jason can get there. >> is it impossible for bill to do all this toing and froing in the time allowed? >> it would certainly be a very tight timeline. >> squeaky to get it done, huh? >> certainly. >> reporter: then the private analyst looked at jason's timeline. >> he already puts himself there, so jason simply has to

commit the murder instead of doing the other tasks that he said he did. >> is it your belief that jason shot his mother? >> yes. >> reporter: painful as it was, bill had been suspicious of his son early on, and remembers a moment when it all became clear. not long after the murder, bill says, jason found out he was going to visit his lawyer. >> he came barging through the door and he said, "what are you going to go see your lawyer about?" and i said, "i just need to get some things straightened out." there's some things that don't add up," and that's when he slammed his fist on the countertop, and he said, "my life is over!" >> reporter: his life? jason's life is over? >> his life is over. i knew then he had done it. >> reporter: it was a shocking realization. you're telling me your boy became a monster? >> he did. he did. i'm ashamed. >> you shouldn't be ashamed. you did everything you could for

the boy. >> i didn't do something right. shirley and i did something wrong. >> reporter: bill carter, tired of waiting for the prosecutor. he, the father, would take the almost unprecedented step of bringing his son before a civil jury. >> my attorney said, "you know, we can file a wrongful death suit, and that will force the county attorney to make a move"" >> reporter: bill was about to sue his son for shirley's death. if the jury ruled for the father, jason wouldn't face prison, but something like financial ruin. >> coming up, father against son. >> you became a practiced, skilled and chronic liar? >> reporter: son against father. >> the killer of shirley carter is in this room, and it's not jason carter.

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i'm marlie hall with breaking news. isis leader ago al baghdadi is believed dead in a u.s. operation in syria. the operation was conducted by u.s. special forces on the air and later on the ground. confirmation of the operation came shortly after the white house announced that president trump would be making a major announcement at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. you can watch those remarks live on msnbc. for now, back to our regular programming. ♪ welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. 68-year-old shirley carter was shot dead in her kitchen and her husband bill was convinced their youngest son jason was the triggerman. desperate for justice, bill had a civil lawsuit against his own flesh and blood. at trial, jason's cheating would

take center stage and a jury would decide if its discovery drove him to kill. once again, here is dennis murphy with "the farm." >> reporter: on a december day in 2017, two and a half years after shirley carter's murder, in this courthouse in knoxville, iowa, father faced off against son. bill carter had spent almost a million dollars to get to this courtroom, and to this moment. >> there is not a more important courtroom anywhere in this state than this courtroom today right now. >> reporter: bill carter's lawyer, mark weinhardt, opened by telling the jury only one person wanted shirley dead. >> the killer is sitting a few feet from you. that's the killer right there, jason carter. >> reporter: it started like a murder case, but remember, this was a civil trial, a wrongful death lawsuit.

the father, the plaintiff. his son, the defendant. the burden of proof is much lower than it would be in a criminal trial. >> the plaintiff only has to prove the defendant liable by a preponderance of the evidence. in other words, 51% likely that you are right. >> reporter: bill carter's lawyer played jason's 911 call. he argued jason stated something about the time of death he couldn't possibly have known. >> looks like she's been laying here for two hours. >> and you hear him say that his mother has been dead for two hours, which medically is absolutely not the fact based upon what we know about the condition of the body. but also, why would he be saying that, other than to already start to create the narrative, "hey, it wasn't me." >> reporter: then bill's lawyer attacked jason's character to show the jury he wasn't a devoted family man. >> do you solemnly swear? >> i do. >> reporter: jason's other woman took the stand. her name, tara hoch. she was questioned by another of bill's attorneys. >> you could hear a pin drop in that courtroom. >> reporter: tara recounted her 15-month affair with the married

jason carter. >> how frequently were you guys having sex? >> uh, on average it would be several times a week. >> did you ever tell mr. carter that you loved him? >> i did. >> did he ever reciprocate and tell you that he loved you? >> he did. >> reporter: and bill's lawyer said that on the morning of the murder, jason and tara exchanged more than a hundred texts on that secret phone, some of them steamy. >> do you recall what your last text message from mr. carter was? >> um, it was something sexual. >> reporter: weinhardt said the conversation ended only when jason stopped texting as he pulled up to his parents' house. >> text, text, text, text, text, until 10:50 a.m., at which point the text traffic goes dark. >> reporter: quiet for 13 minutes until jason made a phone call to his sister, telling her their mother was dead. weinhardt argued that was more than enough time to kill his mother and stage a robbery. >> plaintiffs call jason carter. >> mr. carter, if you would come up. >> reporter: then came the

moment so many had been waiting for, jason, the favorite son, in his own words, telling the jury about seeing his mother dead. >> i couldn't believe what i'd found! >> reporter: weinhardt confronted jason about the affair. >> you did it in a friend's residence, in cars, even in your own house? >> correct. >> you became a practiced, skilled and chronic liar? >> correct. >> reporter: now bill's lawyer tried to prove motive. it was, he argued, about money. the jury was told jason was a spendthrift. >> he puts money into motorcycles and nice cars, and trips and vacations. >> reporter: at the same time, jason was expanding his farm operation. where did all that leave him? more than 500,000 dollars in

debt. >> jason was as broke as he had ever been. he had $40 in his personal bank account, $80 in his business bank account. >> reporter: weinhardt said jason saw only one way out, getting control of his parents' farmland, worth millions. jason knew that he stood to inherit all of it. >> my dad said that shelly and i and our kids will inherit the ground, and that your sister and brother will inherit everything above ground. >> reporter: the lawyer mapped out his theory. shirley had found out about jason's affair, and if shirley knew, then bill soon would know, too. jason worried he would be disinherited. he had to stop his mother before she disclosed his illicit romance. >> i want you to look at the jury and tell them the truth. you shot your mother to death. >> absolutely not. >> reporter: the jury listened for seven days to the plaintiff's case, and then came the defense. >> jason had a loving, close relationship with his mother. >> reporter: jason carter's lawyer, steve wandro, challenged

the accusation that jason, in his 911 call, was trying to push back the time of shirley's death to morning hours when he had been accounted for on video at the grainery. >> looks like she's been laying here for two hours. >> this is all happening within a matter of minutes. jason was simply so distraught, and to say, you know, "you should've done this and you should've done that at this and that," i think is just ridiculous. >> reporter: as for jason's affair? wandro told the jury it was irrelevant, a salacious distraction, and of course jason lied about it to preserve his family. >> if you want to characterize him as a bad guy for carrying on an affair, fine. but that doesn't make the man a killer. >> reporter: jason's wife, shelly, told the jury despite everything she still supported her husband. >> every day i work on forgiving, but never forgetting.

i love my husband, and we have reconciled. >> reporter: as for the motive? wandro argued jason didn't have one. shelly conceded that, at one point, they owed the bank more than half a million dollars on their loan. but she said that was business as usual for farmers. >> we paid that off just like we paid it off every year so we could renew our line and start again. >> reporter: and then wandro boldly offered the alternative theory of the case. >> mr. weinhardt is right. the killer of shirley carter is in this room, and it's not jason carter. it's him, the accuser. >> reporter: bill carter, he said, was the likely killer. shirley, he argued, complained about him all the time. >> she had to get permission for everything. >> reporter: jason's wife testified that shirley told her bill was too controlling.

>> whether it be to make a hair appointment or to help with the kids, whatever it was, she had to get his permission before she could do that. >> reporter: wandro said it all must have come to a head on that june morning. >> and something happened on that friday that made him snap. and he is the one that killed his wife. >> reporter: after two weeks of trial, and mutual accusations, the battle between father and son went to the jury. >> the court will now read the verdict. >> reporter: it took a little over two hours to answer the question. did jason carter cause the death of his mother? >> did defendant, jason carter, batter shirley carter causing damages to plaintiffs? answer, yes. >> reporter: jason had been found liable for the death of his mother. the jury cleared bill. >> it had to come. sooner or later, it had to come.

>> reporter: since this was a civil case, jason wasn't getting any prison time. >> what amount of punitive damages, if any, do you award the estate of shirley carter? answer, $10 million. >> reporter: 10 million. bill and his lawyer never expected to see a dime. >> the more important thing for bill was simply to have eight people from that county hearing all the evidence and saying jason did it. >> reporter: meanwhile, the county district attorney, ed bull, sitting in the back of the courtroom, had been watching closely. what would he do now? >> coming up -- the fates were not quite through with the carter family. >> ill got rice right into his face. why did you kill your mother? >> there would soon be an act two. >> what is the biggest thing you have going in your favor in this thing? >> there really was no significant evidence against jason carter. >> when "dateline" continues. saturdays happen.

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>> reporter: with the civil case decided against jason carter, finding him liable for the death of his mother, the district attorney decided it was time to act. less than 48 hours after that civil verdict, agent ludwick and sheriff's deputies arrested jason carter for the murder of his mother. >> i got right into his face and i said, "why did you kill your mother?" >> but you didn't get anything, huh? >> didn't get anything. stone face cold.

>> reporter: jason carter would be brought back into court, this time accused of first-degree murder. if convicted, he could face life in prison. agent mark ludwick had been convinced of jason carter's guilt ever since that initial interrogation a few days after the murder. >> i'm telling you the truth. the god-awful truth. i'm telling you the truth. >> you're not telling me the truth, jason. >> yes, i am. >> reporter: that day, jason agreed to take a polygraph exam. >> regarding the death of your mom, do you intend to answer each question truthfully? >> yes. >> did you physically hurt your mom last friday? >> no. >> he failed. >> by a big margin? >> huge margin. >> so he totally blew the polygraph? >> he totally failed the polygraph. >> not evidence, but guidance for you, right? >> strong guidance, yes. >> reporter: in march 2019, the curtain came up on the criminal trial. it was first-degree murder, and jason carter pleaded not guilty. as much as he wanted his son to face justice, bill carter knew there would be no winners.

>> i knew there wouldn't be a good outcome. >> why do you say that? >> if my son's guilty of first degree murder, that's not a good outcome. >> so that's a bad choice? >> you'll hear prosecutors talk about motive, means and opportunity. well, means -- the .270 was in the home. there was ammunition. opportunity -- a 13-minute gap in his timeline. so let's talk about motive. >> reporter: district attorney ed bull was telling a jury in counsel bluffs, iowa, jason was stressed over his finances the day he killed hi mother. >> this case isn't about money, it's about pressure. it's about am i gonna be able to be a full-time farmer. >> reporter: this time around, the burden of proof would be higher, beyond a reasonable doubt. and that's a prosecutor's challenge without the rock solid "csi"-style evidence that juries love. >> i want three things in a

homicide case. i want forensics. i want a confession. and i want an eyewitness. in this case, i had none of those things. >> reporter: ed bull would pretty much follow the map of the civil trial, but the jury wasn't allowed to know about the civil case or its outcome. and bull's hands would also be tied by the judge's ruling that the jury wouldn't be allowed to hear about jason's affair, or the steamy texts on his secret phone, and that jason had lied about all of that at first. tara hoch, the girlfriend, took the stand, but only to testify to the gap in jason's timeline and to the abrupt end to their conversation. >> was your conversation that morning -- without telling us any of the details -- such that you expected it was at a logical stopping point? >> no. >> reporter: as to motive, in his opening, the d.a. had mentioned the financial pressure on jason. but in the end, he found it hard to explain why jason would have shot shirley in cold blood. >> there's absolutely nothing i can tell you that would make sense of why it is a son shoots

and kills his mother. >> reporter: now, it was time for the defense. jason carter's attorney, christine branstad, had a clear message for the jury -- a shoddy investigation focused on jason early, and never looked anywhere else. and there were plenty of people to question. >> very significant parts of this investigation simply weren't completed, weren't followed, weren't done. >> so war room, christine. what is the biggest thing you have going in your favor in this thing? >> there really was no significant evidence against jason carter. >> reporter: as in the civil case, the defense attorney argued jason had a loving relationship with his mother, that his allegedly incriminating how-did-he-know-that statements were taken out of context, and, by the way, he wasn't in any financial trouble. >> there was a $3,000 check deposited that day, and another check for $3,000 in the mail, and $175,000 worth of grain in

the bins. >> reporter: and as to the abrupt ending to jason's texting with his lover on the day of the murder, the defense attorney asked the girlfriend on the stand. >> did you perceive in any way that jason carter was troubled on the morning of june 19th? >> no. >> reporter: then there was the timeline of that morning to deal with. all along, based on statements of first responders and crime scene techs, it was estimated shirley had been murdered sometime just before 11:00 a.m., when jason admits he was at the farmhouse. to counter the time of death, one of the nation's most famous pathologists-for-hire took the stand --bcyril wecht. wecht has been involved in thousands of cases, from the jfk assassination to o.j. simpson. >> you were asked to attempt to determine approximate time of death for shirley carter, is that correct? >> yes. >> were you able to do that to a reasonable degree of medical certainty? >> yes. >> reporter: wecht told the jury that shirley may have been killed two hours earlier than anyone had thought possible.

if he was correct, then shirley was murdered around 9:00 a.m., when jason was seen on video clearly still at the granary. he could not have killed his mother. >> so when the state says to you, "all clues point to one conclusion," it's all the clues that the tunnel vision of law enforcement and one investigator in particular went after. >> reporter: the defense attorney said the tunnel-visioned investigator was special agent mark ludwick. now, he reluctantly became her star witness, with branstad rattling off the names of people who'd come up during the investigation. ludwick fumbled. >> you were not very aware of callie shin's involvement? >> that's probably correct, yes. >> not aware of jeremy morris? >> i did become aware of jason morris. i'm not sure of what point i was. >> and that would be jeremy morris? is that who you -- i think you just said jason. >> yeah, that's my mistake. >> and that was a big part of

the point we were trying to make to the jury. >> reporter: while jason's lawyer argued the investigation hadn't been thorough, agent ludwick told us none of the names the defense raised were viable suspects, and they had followed every lead, even ones deemed not credible. >> no -- no credible information. >> reporter: would the jury see reasonable doubt? or would jason carter be spending the rest of his life in prison? the attorneys would have one more chance to make their case. >> coming up -- the verdict. >> i ask you to return a verdict of "not guilty." >> there are only two people who know what happened that day. one of them is dead, and the other one is sitting in that chair. >> when "dateline" continues. >>s (dramatic music) and you're saving money, because you bundled home and auto. sarah, get in the house. we're all here for you. all: all day, all night. (dramatic music)

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welcome back. at jason carter's murder trial. prosecutors knew without forensic evidence they faced uphill battle. the defense made the case they had tunnel vision and botched the investigation. the jury was unaware jason had been found liable for his mom's death in a civil trial. with the criminal case now wrapping up, the stakes were raised for father and son. here is dennis murphy with the conclusion of "the farm." >> reporter: the case of the state of iowa vs. jason carter was about to go to the jury. >> there are so many holes in this investigation.

there is so much that isn't even explored. >> reporter: jason's defense attorney made one last plea. >> and in reality, the forensic evidence says jason carter couldn't possibly be guilty. i ask you to return a verdict of "not guilty." >> reporter: now the county prosecutor argued all the viable leads were followed, and the defense was just so much smoke and mirrors. >> if you believe this is a staged burglary, then all of the names and stuff they put up on the board is irrelevant. >> reporter: bull told the jury jason just snapped that morning. and in a fit of rage, had killed his mother. >> there are only two people who know what happened that day. one of them is dead, and the other one is sitting in that chair. find him guilty as charged. >> reporter: it took the jury less than two hours to reach a verdict, about the same duration as the civil jury's deliberation. and remember, that jury had found jason liable for his mother's death.

so, the lead investigator felt good about things. >> we felt, "this is it." and i had that feeling and emotion of, "he's going to be found guilty." >> reporter: ludwick assembled a team to take jason into custody after the verdict. >> ladies and gentlemen, have you reached a verdict? >> yes, we have, your honor. >> reporter: jason knew a conviction could send him to prison for life. >> we, the jury, find jason carter not guilty. >> is that your verdict, ladies and gentlemen? >> yes, it is. >> reporter: not guilty. jason had gotten his life back. >> i just want to go home and see my kids. it's been a long time comin'. >> jason was a free man. the district attorney says he gave it his best shot. >> reporter: so you're giving the jury this argument of a moment of rage. but you can't really play that movie for them and explain what it was. it's not a very satisfying thing to say, "something happened. he went downstairs, got the rifle, and killed his mom."

>> i don't disagree with you. i wish that there was a better story i could tell. but i'm limited based on what the facts are that i can prove to a jury. and that's the best i had. >> reporter: but that wasn't good enough for bill carter. >> the worst thing i was afraid of was that shirley would never get justice. and that happened. >> is this case closed? >> yes. we believe that we held the right person accountable, but if new information comes forward, we will continue to investigate this. >> reporter: that's just what jason carter says he wants. find the killer. he declined an interview with "dateline," but his attorney says he realizes some people will still believe that he shot his mother to death. >> jason knows that until someone is conclusively proven to be the murderer, some people will still -- still suspect him. >> reporter: the $10 million

civil judgement against jason remains in place. he's appealing that verdict. but for now, jason is what he's always been, a farmer, and the cycles don't stop. it's planting season. and i imagine seeds are going in the ground, huh? >> that's exactly it. i know that he was planting on easter day. and jason saw his father out planting at the same time. and -- >> what did he think? >> he said his thought was, "it just seems wrong. this should've been the time where we were both planting and we both quit and we went in for easter dinner together." and it's hard for him to understand how his family ended up split up like this. >> reporter: and on his side of that field, bill carter watched the son he loved so much work the land just as he'd taught him. >> i have to farm right across the fence from him. >> and you see him? >> i was from here to that wall from him yesterday.

>> reporter: a few feet but an unbridgeable divide when it's a matter of father versus son. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll see you again monday at i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. lie mora. thank you for watching i'm marley hall with breaking news. nbc has confirmed a u.s. operation in syria targeted the leader of isis. abu bakir al baghdadi. he is presumed to be killed. testing has been done to test that. the president will make an announcement at 9:00 a.m. for now, back to our regular programing. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales there and this is "dateline." "datelin.